Waves

Well the wave pool at Oceans of Fun in Kansas City will never quite look the same after seeing these waves. (Rincon is a few miles south of Carpinteria).

I did get to see the huge waves. Unfortunately I did not see anyone braving the waves on a surf board, although I did see two people out on a waverunner. On Wednesday I actually saw three surfers but they were all on land - not sure if they had been scared off or what the deal was with them.

Thank the intelligent designer

Thank the intelligent designer!

Bite My Shiny Metal Ass

Fox seems to have an incredible ability to start the best shows and then cancel them and then complain about their immorality on their news network...

Good thing buying DVDs lets consumers tell Fox that they understand and like the shows even if Fox doesn't.

For those that do not know - this is exactly how Family Guy got back on the air.

Now if only people would start buying up the Firefly DVDs...

New Orleans

Not Cool

Growing Pointy Hair

Well before a few months ago if someone asked me when I thought I'd start growing pointy hair I would have told them I was not sure if I ever would. I guess I should say getting ready to grow it. I'm still moving colored boxes for a living, but I'm going to start going to MBA classes on January 3rd through Pepperdine's fully employed MBA program.

I went to the orientation yesterday which was held on their Malibu campus (I'll be attending on a different location in what is basically an office building, but it is very close to Teradyne). Wow - if you ever stop by don't be distracted by the incredible view of the ocean from the main campus because you are only about half way up the mountain, keep going to the graduate campus which is almost on top of the mountain! Once you have looked out on the endless ocean for long enough your eyes might drift over a bit and notice the graduate housing you are next to which, yes, has an ocean view from the side of a mountain.

One interesting fact about Pepperdine I learned at orientation is that the founder, George Pepperdine, is actually from Kansas City and after making his fortune (selling auto parts I think) moved out to Southern California.

Thanksgiving

I had a good thanksgiving. I spent some time with my parents and brother down in huntington beach and then we headed up to my uncle's place in santa barbara. Turns out I have quite a bit of family out here in CA - 12 people were there (10 of which live in CA). I also got to see my baby cousin for the first time. Between running around with my cousins, drinking some wine and eating a fairly big meal (and probably largely due to the order) I actually slept through a decent portion of the day. The next day my immediate family headed down to the Getty and then saw Harry Potter. Then I picked up Susanna who enjoyed thanksgiving with her family. It was good to see the family and thanks to Len and Lorraine for hosting.

Despair

Despair has its new posters up.

Phishing

This post can be ignored by about half of the readers of this blog (you know who you are - working at a national security lab is a good indicator that you are in this group). Although I would appreciate their comments.

Last night on NPR they were disucssing Phishing and that around the holiday time you should expect a lot more of it. The link will give a better explanation, but basically Phishing is trying to get you to give out your personal info (credit card number being the big one, but other items are also helpful). Phishing falls under the category of social engineering.

I've posted about The Art of Deception, a book about social engineering, before. If you are really interested it is a good read. If you do not want to read a whole book about it, the main take away message is if someone contacts you (email, phone, whatever...) you really have no reason to trust that they are who they claim to be. Especially in email never trust links there are a lot of ways to make an innocent looking link take you somewhere you don't expect. (If a friend says hey look at this website it is funny and include a link then that should not be a big deal - just do not give the site your credit card number or any other information, and if the email seems strange at all contact the friend and make sure it is really from them (don't use the reply button that defeats the whole point - just type up a new email)). Say you get an email from Amazon saying there is something wrong with your account - don't follow the link in the email - just go directly to amazon.com and sign in and see if the website says there is something wrong - if you are really concerned get their phone number off their website. The key idea is go to a trusted source and go from there.

If you are worried that someone got your info call the company they claimed to be from (get the info off their website or phone book - not from the person calling or unwilling) and ask them if it was legitimate - if not just call the credit card company and tell them what happened.

Well I hope that helps and was not too rambling.